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In the Moment: How Mikyx made his legendary Spring Season kill
We take a look back at the moment League of Legends player Mihael 'Mikyx' Mehle sealed victory for G2 Esports with an ingenious Sion play.
As an esports professional, looking back at your games with a critical eye is crucial for improving and growing, both as an individual and alongside your team-mates. Usually there are notes and changes to be made, but occasionally a play comes off so perfectly that it stands out in a player's personal history of the game.
We're documenting these moments of unparalleled joy, the last-minute saves and unexpected turning points in our In the Moment series. Each video explores the moment of victory in detail, reflecting on each thought, movement and technique of these incredible plays.
In the latest video in our series, we meet with League of Legends player Mihael 'Mikyx' Mehle, who was a mainstay in the League of Legends European Championship with G2 Esports for three years. His moment of choice was the incredible free kill that occurred during a match against FC Schalke 04 Esports in the LEC Spring Season 2021. Click the video below to watch the episode.
The upper hand
The G2 vs FC Schalke 04 match occurred during Week 5 of the Spring 2021 Regular Season, which would become the penultimate season before Schalke were due to disband. Having had a rough couple of weeks after what had seemed like a positive start, Schalke were somewhat disheartened and fighting through a few difficult games. G2, on the other hand, were back to riding high at the top of the league, only having lost two games in total.
Mikyx says he knew his team had the upper hand from the start and saw it as a training opportunity – a free space to try something new. "I felt like we should try something out," he explains. "As a pro player, you always need to be ready to adapt, try something new and have good preparation." And in testing the waters he created a moment that he'll always remember.
Creating the opportunity
Despite Mikyx's confidence, it was still all to play for at this stage, as anything can happen between Week 5 and the end of the Spring Season. Then, team-mate Martin 'Rekkles' Larsson had gone for Senna as his pick, so Mikyx chose Sion as a sort of experiment. "If I tried Sion and it worked out, then we'd have some kind of strategy that other teams wouldn't be prepared for, so they'd be maybe forced to ban it in the future," he says.
Mikyx noticed Schalke's Matúš 'Neon' Jakubčík going it alone with champion Ezreal, who's usually hard to catch off-guard. Taking this perception of safety and turning it against Neon was what ultimately led to the incredible free kill that Mikyx himself describes as "career-defining".
Mikyx is no stranger to top-flight competition
© Stephanie Lindgren/Red Bull Content Pool
Check out our coverage of the Worlds 2021 Finals
Second time (un)lucky
Mikyx and Rekkles had communicated their strategy earlier in the game and knocked Neon off course, but the most satisfying kill came the second time, when he fell for the same play twice. Acting as evidence toward the strength of a Senna/Sion combo, the two worked in tandem to produce a second result bigger than the first and one that set the pace for the rest of the game.
Neon was farming alone, without the protection of one of his team's turrets, and Mikyx was currently invisible thanks to an ability cast by Rekkles. This gave Mikyx the opportunity to sneak up on Neon, shove a minion towards him seemingly out of nowhere and leave him defenseless and rooted to the spot thanks to his champion's ability.
Rubbing alt in the wound
"As soon as I threw my E, I also started [activating my ultimate] because it kind of looked like it's going to hit," he explains, highlighting the dexterity needed to pull of this sneak attack. Had Mikyx not been quick on his feet and immediately activated his ultimate, Neon would have been able to escape. As it was, he was trapped, easy prey for Rekkles and Mikyx to wipe out.
After that, it was only a matter of time for Schalke. In the aftermath of Neon's death a turret was destroyed and G2 went on to dominate in the Rift. Mikyx looks back on this moment as one of many that define his career as a professional League of Legends player: "This game proved that it's worth trying out stuff like this."
Not only did they make this outstanding play twice in one game, but G2 then went on to top the tables in the Spring Regular Season.
